Dr Megan Freeth
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Address:
Department of Psychology
The University of Sheffield
Sheffield
S10 2TN
UK
Tel: (+44) 0114 22 26628
Fax: (+44) 0114 27 66515
Room: 2-11
Email: m.freeth@sheffield.ac.uk
Teaching
PSY101 Discovering Psychology - Module Organiser
PSY323 Cognitive Neuroscience - Module Organiser
PSY342 Advanced Topics in Developmental Psychology - Lecturer
PSY259 tutorials
PSY346 - Level 3 research project supervisor
PSY315 - Level 3 extended essay supervisor
PhD student supervisor - Stephanie Dunn& Luisa Rosas
DClin academic supervisor - Holly Norbron & Jen Gallagher
Mres supervisor - Rachael Lunn & Yichen Gu
Administrative Duties
Admissions tutor (mature students)
Disabilities Liason Officer for Psychology
Qualifications
PhD (Nottingham), MSc (Nottingham), BSc (Birmingham)
Research Interests
- Autism Spectrum Disorders (including the broader autism phenotype)
- Visual attention
- Eye movements
- Gaze cues
- Social cognition
- Neural correlates of visual attention
Current Projects
Processing social information while observing interactions: Patterns of attention in autism and autistic traits (collaborators: Monika Bartczak; Dr Elizabeth Milne)
Can patterns of eye movements explain heighted visual search ability in individuals with autism? (collaborators: Donny Yates; Dr Elizabeth Milne; Dr Tom Stafford)
The cognitive profile of individuals with high/low autistic traits across cultures (collaborators: Dr Rajani Ramachandran, Dr Elizabeth Sheppard & Dr Elizabeth Milne)
What is social about interactions? Eye tracking, eye contact and autistic traits (collaborators: Dr Tom Foulsham, Prof Alan Kingstone)
Neural correlates of typical and a-typical attention (collaborator: Dr Elizabeth Milne)
Publications
Freeth, M., Bullock, T., & Milne, E. (in press). The distribution of and relationship between autistic traits and social anxiety in a UK student population. Autism
Freeth, M., Foulsham, T., & Chapman, P. (2011). The influence of visual saliency on fixation patterns in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Neuropsychologia, 49(1), 156-160. Further information
Freeth, M., Ropar, D., Mitchell, P., Chapman, P. & Loher, S. (2011). Brief Report: How adolescents with ASD process social information in complex scenes. Eye movements and verbal descriptions. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(3) 364-371. Further information
Freeth, M., Chapman, P., Ropar, D., & Mitchell, P. (2010). Do Gaze Cues in Complex Scenes Capture and Direct the Attention of High Functioning
Adolescents with ASD? Evidence from Eye-tracking. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40(5), 537-547. Further information
Freeth, M., Ropar, D., Chapman, P., & Mitchell, P. (2010). The eye-gaze direction of an observed person can bias perception, memory and attention in adolescents with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 105 (1),20-37. Further information
Beck, S.R., Robinson, E.J., Freeth, M.M., (2008). Can children resist making interpretations when uncertain? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 99(4), 252-270. Further information
Grants and Awards
Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (Mar 2011-Mar 2013). Social Attention in Autism. £177,351
NCRM Training bursary – to attend EEGlab workshop, San Diego (Nov 2010). £985
Wellcome Trust Value in People award (Oct 2010-Mar 2011). £15,000
ESRC Post Doctoral Fellowship (Sept 2009-Sept 2010). Social Cognition in Typically Developing Individuals and those with Autism Spectrum Disorders using EEG and Eye-tracking Techniques. £72,426
University of Nottingham Graduate School Travel Prize (2008)
INSAR Student Travel Prize (2007)

